Clinton Names Envoy for North Korea

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary RodhamClinton named a special envoy for North Korea on Friday (Korea time), but warned the communist nation that ties with the United States will notimprove unless it stops threatening South Korea.

A day after acknowledging fears that a possible successioncrisis to replace the North's ailing leader Kim Jong Il mightcomplicate efforts to revive stalled talks on getting Pyongyang toabandon nuclear weapons, Clinton said it was also critical for thecurrent leadership to engage in negotiations.

"We are calling on the government of North Korea to refrainfrom being provocative and unhelpful in a war of words they areengaged in because it is not fruitful," she told reporters at anews conference with South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan.

The North has been steadily ramping up belligerent rhetoric,rejecting dialogue with the South, and is thought to be preparingto test-fire what intelligence analysts believe is a long-rangemissile, which would significantly raise tensions with South Koreaand Japan.

Clinton said the new U.S. special representative for NorthKorea, Stephen Bosworth, former U.S. ambassador to South Korea,would work with both the South Koreans and Japanese as well as theChinese to look at ways to get Pyongyang back to the negotiatingtable.

She dismissed concerns that her candid comments to reporters enroute to Seoul about a possible leadership vacuum in North Koreamight prompt a severe response from Pyongyang and said the currentrulers should return to six-nation disarmament talks.

"When you are thinking about future dealings with a governmentthat doesn't have any clear succession - they don't have a vicepresident, they don't have a prime minister - that is something tothink about," Clinton said.

"But for the purposes of what we are planning today, it is todeal with the government that exists, the leadership that existsand look for ways to involve them."

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